Publicity

April 11, 2017

There have been boatloads of jokes over the past couple days about those twin PR disasters, Pepsi and United. “Do they share the same PR firm?” “If only Kendall Jenner was on that United Airlines flight with an ice cold Pepsi this would have never happened.” (Not to get all serious for a minute, but check out this Atlantic article about how, in part, airlines get away with systemic customer abuse because they are “sheltered from … litigation” due to forced arbitration clauses and class action waivers.)

Obviously without videos, it’s unlikely either company would have suffered any major PR damage. There are plenty of other corporate abuses occurring every day that have generally escaped the same PR fate - and the lack of video may be one reason why.

…to dismiss claims that one of its subsidiaries retaliated against a former employee whose whistleblower lawsuit led to an $18 million settlement with the U.S. Justice Department.

Melayna Lokosky, a former sales representative for J&J unit Acclarent, said she was unlawfully fired in 2011 after raising questions internally about the off-label promotion of a medical device called the Relieva Stratus MicroFlow Spacer, or Stratus.

Here’s some of what we know about Melanyna Lokosky. She was “a sales rep for Acclarent [a medical device company] and was making $250,000 a year." But, "In 2011, she decided she would blow the whistle on the company’s fraud." As a result of her efforts, “the former CEO and the former VP of sales of Johnson & Johnson unit Acclarent, Inc. … were convicted by a federal jury in Boston in connection with distributing adulterated and misbranded medical devices.” What’s more, “the company paid $18 million to resolve allegations that the company caused health care providers to submit false claims to Medicare and other federal healthcare programs by marketing its sinus spacer product for use as a drug delivery device without U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of that use.”

J&J is apparently now arguingnot that she wasn't retaliated against, but that she doesn’t get False Claims Act legal protections because she “raised issues about regulatory violations, not the False Claims Act itself.” This is even though her whistleblowing led the the company to pay $18 million for filing false claims. C'mon.

Mind you, this comes after a year so chock full of J&J disasters that Bloomberg felt compelled to put it all together in an article called, “Why Johnson & Johnson Would Like to Forget 2016: QuickTake Q&A.” For example:

Johnson & Johnson had a year for the record books -- it lost six of 2016’s seven largest jury verdicts in the U.S. over product defect claims. This year may be no better. The company is facing at least 17 trials in state and federal courts in the U.S. over hip implants, talcum powder, pelvic mesh, an anti-psychotic drug and a blood thinner. And beyond these trials, there are tens of thousands more potential claims over those five products.

As the Atlantic put it, “the United video serves as a stark metaphor, one where the quiet brutalization of consumers is rendered in shocking, literal form.” Too bad not every corporate scandal is caught on camera. At least not yet.

June 30, 2009

The headline pretty much says it all, civil justice fans. GM auto-defect victims and their families, including some with catastrophic injuries, are in NYC today attending the company’s bankruptcy hearing as they continue fighting its attempts to skirt responsibility for their harms.

Today’s action comes on the heals of a tremendous victory this past Friday when GM caved to pressure and agreed to assume responsibility for injures and deaths caused by defects in its cars - as long as the accident happens after the bankruptcy is over! Incredibly, it is still washing its hands of any victim currently injured by these cars, taking no responsibility for hundreds of claims over deaths and injuries that exist right now.

This was a morally reprehensible decision by GM and the courageous victims and their families who made it to Manhattan today intend to let the world to know it - and to try to fix it.

July 25, 2008

The investigation continues in Las Vegas in a clinic where patients
became infected with Hepatitis C after staff members reused syringes
and medicine vials on multiple patients. (more info click here and here)

The
heparin suits are the first to be brought against a pharmaceutical
manufacturer with ties to China, which has been linked in other
litigation to dangerous products such as toys, pet food and toothpaste.

For those of you who are fans of the Ali G Show, Borat and
the just completed Bruno Movie, Sacha Baron Cohen's next project
appears to be a comedy involving a trial attorney turned hero fighting
for immigrant workers against corporate wrongdoers.

And for a plug for free speech, this week the Republican National
Committee backed off its threat to sue CafePress over the company's use
of the initials "GOP" and elephants.

June 12, 2008

Hey, thanks once again to the Manhattan Institute for yet another free
promo for the Center for Justice & Democracy state AG report! And
to top it off, again, no critique of the report - although they do
regurgitate some old papers written by the Washington Legal Foundation,
the American Enterprise Institute, and themselves all of whom seem to
hate it when state law enforcement – i.e. Attorneys General - crack
down on corporate abuse. No surprise there. I mean, is there a rich
corporation or industry in America that doesn’t fund these groups?
(Not to mention their corporate counsel who charge more per hour than
an injured person makes in benefits in two weeks.)

The free promo reminds me of the time when the American Enterprise
Institute published a paper crediting Center for Justice &
Democracy and CJ&D’s project, Americans for Insurance Reform, for,
in their words, “stunting the medical malpractice debate” in Congress
over bills that would essentially take dollars away from injured
patients and put them into the pockets of insurance companies. Then
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist forced four votes in three years on
these kinds of bills, each time resulting in stunning defeat. We
thanked AEI then for giving us that kind of credit and publicity! And
once again, we thank them all.

One of my favorites was the 2002 release by Physicians Insurers
Association of America attacking Public Citizen for its statistical
report about the insurance industry. And I quote, "Fighting to the
death for the right to chase ambulances and hover over the sick and
dead, this group of wolves in sheep's clothing has turned nothing less
than rabid. Their rantings have gone beyond the bounds of rationality
and descended into the maelstrom of sheer lunacy.” Yes, now there’s a
thoughtful analysis.

Here’s another funny thing. POL writes, “Walter Olson has written
about [Center for Justice & Democracy] over the years, aptly
describing it as a ‘trial lawyer front group'" and they then proceed to
cite themselves. But among the items they cite are two earlier posts
that announce Joanne Doroshow’s participation on the American
Enterprise Institute panel on Hurricane Katrina, at the invitation of
AEI’s Ted Frank!

Maybe they should consider adding Joanne to their Dick Cheney page.
Might enhance the quality a little.

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